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Tower Clock Eye Center offers corneal cross-linking, a minimally invasive outpatient procedure for those suffering from progressive keratoconus.
Eye problems from surgery or disease can weaken collagen fibers on the surface of the eye which help give the eye its shape. Cornea cross-linking introduces new collagen fibers to the eye that strengthen and reinforce the cornea’s natural shape.
What Is Keratoconus?
Cornea cross-linking benefits patients with keratoconus, an eye disease where the cornea thins and changes shape over time. When the cornea is weak, it bulges outward and changes shape. This often results in blurred vision. The goal of cross-linking is to slow the disease from progressing and prevent future vision problems.
How Does Crosslinking Work?
Corneal cross-linking is currently the only treatment that helps against progressive keratoconus from worsening, and it can help avoid a corneal transplant in the future.
Tower Clock Eye Center’s Epi-off corneal crosslinking procedure is FDA-approved so many area insurance plans cover the surgery.Â
Epi-off cross-linking removes the epithelium, the outer layer of the cornea. It allows the specially formulated eye drops to penetrate deeper into the cornea. Tower Clock Eye Center’s iLink® cross-linking is the only cross-linking procedure approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Epi-on cross-linking is a procedure other area eye centers use where the epithelium is not removed and is left in place. Studies have shown this variation of the surgery is not as effective as Epi-off. In the US there are currently no epi-on cross-linking procedures that have FDA approval.
To schedule or learn more about Tower Clock Eye Center’s FDA-approved cornea crosslinking procedure, call us at 920.499.3102
